A Dark, Dark Wood

Author: Ruth Ware
308 pages
Genre: Mystery Thriller
First Published: 2015
Book Description (Good Reads): 

In a dark, dark wood
Nora hasn't seen Clare for ten years. Not since Nora walked out of school one day and never went back.
There was a dark, dark house
Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare’s hen do arrives. Is this a chance for Nora to finally put her past behind her?
And in the dark, dark house there was a dark, dark room
But something goes wrong. Very wrong.
And in the dark, dark room....
Some things can’t stay secret for ever.

Points to consider:

1. Plot: 8.0
1. The storyline starts very classically. Giving the hints that something happened a decade before and our main character Nora, her inability to move on. Then giving small hints of what it was, you get the picture soon enough is complete as the clues start to come to us as we read. 
2. The plot twist is given enough hype to make it interesting as you go towards it. But the ending is not all that satisfying. 
2. Logic: 7.5
1. The way things go down makes sense for the most part. The way people drift apart but then feel compromised to rekindle lost friendships. The way people felt lost among their teenage friends. 
2. The crazy way Flo behaves is the only thing over exaggerated. It was a bit too much. She was too obsessed with her friend and it didn't make sense to try so much. 
3. Clare was too crazy, her reaction was too much to something like what it happened.
4. The ending was a bit too perfect, the way things went down it had to create a bit more of difficulty for Nora but it didn't as soon as she solves the mystery everyone believes her and bum clues and stuff appear magically to prove her right without much of saying anything.
3. Characters: 8.0
1. Nora is very troubled on her own, not getting over her life while in high school. But she is trying to ignore her past and the current life she had changed completely but felt she needed to face her old friend. She was too easily influenced by her old friends. 
2. Clare I have an extreme dislike, not only at the ending she was annoying and not a very good friend. I got annoyed with the "perfect" image she wanted to portray. 
3. Flo, I disliked for the most part, until the very end. She was the only person that made actual growth in her personality and behavior.
4. Nina is a very unconsidered woman and she does not change at all. But then again they are already grown up and they don't necessarily change much. But she is a good friend to Nora and Clare even if she does not always like the way she behaves. But at least she was able to see the perfect Clare a bit more realistically. 
4. Intrigue: 8.5
1. The mystery behind the past. The uncertainty of the reason for the reunion so much time later and the way things build up in the reunion make the book interesting enough to want to read it fast. 
5. Enjoyment: 8.5
1. I like the story it is entertaining enough. Thriller wise it is not the most revealing plot twist at all because you can tell what's coming as the clues come to you. Still, it is a nice read. The way things reveal themselves at least while you're reading it wraps you.
6. Writing Style: 9.0 
1. The writing is nice, even the way the story is told in multiple time periods, one running at the present and the way Nora remembers the events of the hen she went to. 
2. Generally, the stories where the main POV is divided not on different people but on different time periods not too far apart. The cut short memory of the events, the broken way the events come, it was not annoying it was interesting.
7. Intention: 8.0
1. The moral of the story, don't go to random isolated places with people you have not seen in forever if you don't feel comfortable XD
2. You never really know a person and they might change over time or at least the way they are portrayed to others. 

Total score: 57.5
Average: 8.2
Star Rating: 4.0

Used this book to accomplished the Challenges:

• Magical Readathon Extra Credit 
• Lumos- Book with a light cover